The Abbott government’s legislative crackdown on accountability in unions and employer groups is unfair, a Senate committee has heard.

Australian Industry Group industrial relations director
Stephen Smith
told the inquiry in Melbourne on Tuesday that most registered organisations, including unions, were made up of ­ethical people and should not be subject to unbalanced laws because of the Health Services Union scandal.

He said it was unfair to subject non-profit organisations to the same disclosure rules as listed company executives, such as having to disclose officer remuneration, material personal interests and payments to related parties.

“To publish interests on a ­public website we think goes far, far beyond the corporations law provisions," he told the Senate education and employment legislation committee.

Across town, former HSU boss and federal MP
Craig Thomson
appeared in court, where it emerged he will now face 224 charges, over alleged misuse of union credit cards. The case will return to court next week.

Earlier, the head of the nation’s ­construction union told senators there was no correlation between a spike in industrial action and the abolition of the Australian Building and Con­struction Commission (ABCC). The committee is also inquiring into the commission’s planned restoration.

CFMEU construction national president
Dave Noonan
said more than 1 million people worked in the industry and it was inevitable some had been convicted of criminal offences or were engaged in criminal activity.

He said any suggestion the bill would address widespread organised crime in the industry was being used as “an attempt to generate moral panic to ­support it". He said the union did not support or condone that behaviour.

He said the penalties under the ABCC were similar to those applied to people smugglers, and the coercive powers of the act were the same as those applied to terrorist suspects.

Both Mr Noonan and Mr Lyons said there was no role for criminal proceedings in the bill as any criminal activity was a matter for the police or relevant crime authority.

But Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry workplace policy director Daniel Mammone said there was a problem in the building sector.

Master Builders Association chief executive Wilhelm Harnisch said since the abolition of the ABCC, the industrial environment had “turned ugly", citing the blockades at the Grocon, Queensland Children’s Hospital, the Little Creatures Brewery in Geelong and the Lend Lease dispute in Adelaide.

He said non-unionised workforces were more productive with fewer rostered days off.